Does anyone else here remember Elite , the classic old videogame from the early '80s? That was an incredible piece of work for its time, in many ways a Rogue Trader simulation game.

For those that don't know the game, it was years ahead of its time: a 3D wireframe simulator running on utterly antiquated hardware (by today's standards) that nevertheless managed to fit in (in 40k terms) dozens of Sectors worth of planets, about twenty different types of vessels, a ton of cool weapon upgrades, alien races and a robust (if simplistic) trading system that enabled you to travel around the galaxy profiting from supply/demand variations.

It was arguably the first true "sandbox" game like Grand theft auto, a game that just dropped you into a galaxy and gave you a choice as to how you wanted to play it. You could be a peaceful trader running from trouble , a miner scooping plasma from the surface of suns or a pirate, blasting other ships to pieces and stealing their stuff.

I fondly remember that game, having spent many hours on my crappy BBC Model B grinding my way to the lofty rank of "competent."

It's one of only about ten games ever produced to (retrospectively) get a "perfect" 10/10 rating from Edge Magazine, which puts it up there with things like Halo, Halo 3, Mario galaxies, Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of time etc etc.

The reason I mention it here is partly to reminisce, but also to idly wonder if there's any way to steal some of its trading mechanics for Rogue Trader. Elite used (for the time) incredibly advanced random number generation sequences to produce a standard list of 30-50 products (furs, luxury foodstuffs, iron, etc) for every planet you visited. You could then buy items at the price stated and fly to another world to sell them on, hopefully at a profit.

So, for example, if you used this system in 40k, and were a peaceful Rogue Trader wandering around the Calixis Sector, you could buy ore at 15 thrones a tonne at Sephiris Secundus, and sell it at 50 thrones a tonne at the Lathes.

Just a thought! I'm sure the endeavours system is more sophisticated than this, but it could be used as a back up mechanic for "milk run" trading missions...

Ah, I remember Elite. My Friend Stuart played it to death. I really wanted to like it, but after ploughing into the side of a space station for the 20th time while trying to dock I gave up and never touched it again. Of course, if I'd managed to land successfully a couple of times, I'd have been able to buy a docking computer and never had to do it again.

Silly that something so trivial put me off one of the all time classics.

Never played it, but I thought it sounded familiar. And lo and behold, wikipedia even state that the game served to influence Eve Online.

I actually miss Eve Online (was quite a while ago since I played last time), and with the excruciating wait for Rogue Trader im contemplating of activating my account again just to see some space ships in trade, battle and adventure.

Oh by the way, if you're interested in Rogue Trader and/or Elite, you'll probably like Eve Online. It is the only MMORPG I've ever liked, and that comes from a guy who grew bored of World of Warcraft in only fifteen minutes of playing!

A system like Travellers is pretty much Elite as it is

Elite what more can you say? They should re-publish this game with all the fluff in the orignal like the story book and ship poster. Man have i just marked my age.

Indeed Lightbringer! I'm a professional games developer today because I played Elite so much at the age of 14 that I ended up writing my own RPG around it, heavily influenced by the old WEG D6 Star Wars system which I also played a lot around that time.

I recently downloaded Oolite too, which I plan on wasting several weeks on pretty soon :-)

Cheer

Andy

I got into games and programming via the BBC B and Elite. I still own the original box and manuals but the media seems to have disappeared.

Anyway, I second Traveller (which is an excellent system, by the way) for the trading mechanics if you want that.

Andy, my sister and I started roleplaying, before we even realized it was called that, in our own version of the Elite universe and it's part of our childhood that's stayed with us. Impressive legacy, I'd say, that nothing has really live up to since, in my opinion, though Battlecruiser and its successors has tried.

I pinched my starmap from Frontier: Elite II , and the only Imperial outpost in the sector is called Jameson's Hollow, so yeah, I remember Elite .

The Privateer games released after Elite where also pretty good value as well for the time. I miss those games in a way, don't have the time-sink for stuff like Eve and for single player stuff it was quite involving

Oh, Privateer was AWESOME! I'd pulled a copy from HotU a while back and played it till I started hallucinating from sleep deprivation. Unfortunately, that was on my old computer (there isn't a version that works on Vista, sadly), and I can't really take the time to play for that long now anyway.

Definitely another thumbs up for Traveller, in all it's incarnations.

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